Charter schools across the country enroll smaller percentages of disabled children than traditional public schools, according to a new report based on federal data. But although charters have traditionally lagged in special needs enrollment, they are catching up to their traditional counterparts, the authors write.

The report, written by Lauren Morando Rhim and Shaini Kothari of the National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools, compares figures on both district and charter schools from the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection

A disabled-enrollment gap persists between the traditional and charter sectors, however. Disabled children — whose challenges may range from blindness to ADHD to Down syndrome — make up 12.46 percent of all students at traditional public schools, but just 10.62 percent of students at charter schools. That gap has been observed in the data since at least 2008.

Notably, though, the disparity has slowly been closing with the passage of time. The diminishing gap comes as both charters and traditional schools have enrolled higher proportions of disabled students in recent years.

“Any difference would be considered statistically significant and support concerns that students with disabilities are not accessing charter schools as readily as traditional public schools,” the authors write. “However, the decrease in the difference over time appears to indicate that as the charter sector grows and matures, the difference will continue to decrease as charter schools build capacity and more parents of students with disabilities seek to exercise choice.”

Read the full article about traditional and charter school enrollment by Kevin Mahnken at The 74.